David Skal's Fright Favorites -- 31 spooky films for Halloween season.

Review by Doug Gibson

David J. Skal has a long resume of writing genre-intensive books on the horror genre. I'm sure many readers have enjoyed his film, etc., critiques in The Monster Show and Hollywood Gothic. And his biography of Bram Stoker, Something in the Blood, was an informative, provocative read, one of my favorite birthday gifts.

Just a few days ago, Skal's new book, "Fright Favorites: 31 Movies to Haunt Your Halloween and Beyond," arrived at book stores and online retailers. It has a 2020 copyright from Turner Classic Movies and is published by Running Press, of Hachette Book Group, New York City. Amazon sells Fright Favorites. I was fortunate enough to receive a review copy.  Here is the link to Running Press. And also, here is Skal's Amazon page.

Although veteran genre fans will enjoy this book (I sure did), it's just as much geared toward the casual viewer of horror films; those ones who draw a blank when "Nosferatu" or "The Mystery of the Wax Museum" (1932) are mentioned. Skal provides a brief history of Hollywood horror of the past 98 years, and even longer if you read his introduction on film culture's long, evolving relationship with October's spooky season.

I really enjoyed learning a little more about the backstory of a film. Skal offers tidbits from a featured film that you might not have known. Myself, for example, never knew that early plans for the giant ants attack film "Them" originally planned to have the ants invade the New York City subway system. Instead, the budget dictated that the ants visit the cheaper-to-film Los Angeles storm drains.

Another thing learned was that William Castle, director of tongue-in-cheek horrors, was the initial driving force to bring "Rosemary's Baby" to the screen. He did not direct it, of course. Paramount did not want a gimmicky adaptation along the lines of a "13 Ghosts." Castle took on the role of producer.

The wonderful films discussed include. "Nosferatu," "Dracula," "Frankenstein," "The Mummy," "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," (1932), "The Wolf Man." Universal of course dominates the early offerings, the aforementioned "... Wax Museum" and "... Jekyll and ... Hyde" are from other studios.

I enjoyed seeing RKO's "Cat People" getting an inclusion, as well as Allied Artists "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." Hammer Films get its due with "The Curse of Frankenstein" and "Horror of Dracula." Offbeat imports from greats such as Mario Bava are included, as are films indicative of the switch to gore, very dark comedy and downbeat endings, such as "Night of the Living Dead," and Rosemary's Baby." In fact, the final of the 31 films is 2017's "Get Out."

Film directors/producers such as Roger Corman, with his Poe films, and William Castle, are included. Other appropriate inclusions are "The Exorcist" and Mel Brooks' perfect spoof/homage "Young Frankenstein."

Your reviewer was born in 1963, and he appreciates Skal including the films I saw faithfully (to a fault), such as John Carpenter's "Halloween," "Nightmare on Elm Street," and the delightfully dark, infamous "Friday the 13th."

I mention "Friday the 13th"  because it's included with 30 other films in the "If you've enjoyed ...., you might also like" section of the book. So there are really 62 films to sample in this book. Some of these runner-ups -- with large-capsule summaries -- include "The Black Cat," (with Karloff and Lugosi), Dario Argento's classic "Suspiria," (1977), the recent horror flick "The Conjuring,"' and James Whale's great dark horror comedy "The Old Dark House." (1932), once lost for decades.

To be even more precise, there are likely closer to 90 films discussed as Skal frequently offers his comments on sequels to the 31 main films noted, including the Universals and Hammers.

The 31 chapters on the featured horror films have summaries and analysis which are neither too long or too short. The casual fan, just learning about the horror film genre, would likely get bored if the chapters were the length of, say a Midnight Marquee Press book, or one of Danny Peary's books on cult films. (Both MMP and Peary are valuable reads, by the way). But these chapters are roughly 5- to 10-minute reads and will whet an appetite to see a film profiled. I cite myself as an example: I have never seen two comedy offerings, "Hocus Pocus" and "Beetlejuice,"' but plan to see both -- in October, of course. 

If you buy the dead-tree edition, "Fright Favorites" is a slightly oversized book -- with an abundance of photos -- perfectly appropriate to sit on your coffee table, to be read in an easy chair or couch, at your leisure. It would be so cool for Turner Classic Movies to show these films, all 31, from Oct. 31 to Halloween.

Maybe that will happen one day. But until then, just about all are easily accessible via streaming. So one could indeed watch one a day this Halloween season. 

Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things – Witchcraft Ritual Raises The Dead.

I must admit that when I first saw Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things over twenty years ago, I found it to be in very poor taste. The idea of exhuming a corpse for a silly witchcraft ceremony seemed appalling and repulsive to me. As the years have gone by, the film has grown on me. The sharp, digitally remastered print of the film on Amazon Prime makes it even more enjoyable to watch.

A group of young theater actors sail to a burial island for criminals and paupers near the coast of Florida. The group comes to dabble in witchcraft and to exhume the body of a corpse to use in a ritual ceremony. Alan (Alan Ormsby) is the director of the theater group and master of ceremonies. He brings to the burial island a warlock's chest of ritual items, such as a warlock's robe, a book of spells and an envelope of dried infant's blood. Many in the theater group are skeptical of being a part of Alan's ritual, but go along with it so that they do not lose their acting jobs.

As the group arrives on shore of the burial island, Alan insists on upholding a “primal juncture” rule in which he hopes to make out with a beautiful new theater group member named Terry (Jane Daly). Terry rejects Alan's rule by stating a girl scout joke. Terry is not the only actor in the group who rejects Alan's arrogant attitude, as we see throughout the entire film.

Alan takes the theater group on a tour of the island while speaking in a Bela Lugosi – Dracula accent. He informs the group that the caretaker's house has been abandoned for two years. The caretaker was placed in an insane asylum after murdering his wife and children. The group breaks into the house to stay the night. The kitchen of the house is infested with rats. Alan jokingly says they can feast on the rats if their food supply runs low. Valerie (Valerie Mamches) responds to Alan by saying - “In your case, that would be cannibalism.” Valerie appears to be Alan's biggest critic in the group, so there is an interesting tension between the two actors in many scenes.

The group leaves the house to find the grave of a man named Orville Dunworth. Jeff (Jeff Gillen) opens Dunworth's casket and is attacked by the corpse inside the grave. Alan begins to laugh hysterically. Inside the grave is actor Roy (Roy Engleman) pretending to be the corpse of Dunworth. Dunworth's corpse was removed earlier. Alan, Roy and Emmerson (Robert Phillip) set up the joke to scare the theater group. Jeff repeats over and over - “I peed my pants” after being frightened by Roy in the grave.

In a failed attempt by Alan to raise the dead at Dunworth's open grave, he then orders Paul (Paul Cronin) and Jeff to carry Dunworth's corpse “Roman style” back to the caretaker's house. Valerie tells Alan he should have “stuck to the clown act.” Despite Valerie's criticism, Alan stages a mock wedding ceremony in which he marries Dunworth's corpse. Although Alan displays a tone of arrogance throughout the film, he also seems to not take any of his rituals very seriously. The wedding ceremony is a complete joke to Alan. He mocks Dunworth's corpse by reciting jokes about the dead.

As Alan lies in bed with Dunworth's corpse (one of the more distasteful scenes in the film), the theater group tries to leave the island but are confronted by zombies who have risen from their graves. The group flees back to the caretaker's house in a scene that is reminiscent of George Romero's Night of The Living Dead (1968). Zombies pound on windows and doors as the group nails up boards on the inside of the house.

Director Bob Clark went on to direct a number of other great cult classics – such as Black Christmas (1974), A Christmas Story (1983) and Porky's (1981). Clark was planning on directing a remake of Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things before his death in 2007, but the remake never happened.

Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things was also known as Revenge of The Living Dead, Things From The Dead and Zreaks. Although the film is often put in the category of “comedic horror,” there is very little humor in the film. The end sequence of zombies digging their way out of graves and roaming the cemetery is genuinely frightening and effective. Happy viewing.

--- Steve D. Stones

Scared to Death: Bela Lugosi in 'natural color'

Observations by Doug Gibson

Look above you, readers, and you see a newspaper ad -- from the Bakersfield Californian -- for a "spook show." at midnight on July 4, 1957. On stage will be Dr. London's Inner Sanctum Hour. On the screen is "Scared to Death," with Bela Lugosi headlined. The ad states it's "in gory color."

A woman dies in "Scared to Death," sans gore, and a couple of the cast gets a knock on the head. It is indeed in color, Cinecolor, a cheap film system used mostly for nature and westerns. In fact, it was advertised as "Natural Color" often, including in the Chula Vista Star in an ad on July 11, 1947 below. Incredibly, it was the co-feature to "Suddenly It's Spring," with Fred MacMurray Paulette Goddard!

Golden Gate Pictures released "Scared to Death" in 1947 even though it was completed in 1946. I know a lot of genre fans that enjoy the film. After many viewings, including another as I type this review, it has grown on me. But it can be a tough slog. It's an inside-the-house/sanitarium mystery that gives away the ending at the beginning. We see a woman, Laura Van Ee (Molly Lamont) who is dead at the morgue. Strangely enough, she serves as our narrator.

For about an hour we are inside the sanitarium house, which belongs to Dr. George Van Ee (George Zucco) whose son, Ward, is in a loveless marriage with Laura. It's an odd situation. The doctor and his son are treating Laura, but she claims to be a prisoner. Ward wants a divorce, but Laura refuses. She seems to always be very stressed out. Lionel Atwill was originally cast as Dr. Joseph Van Eee, but died in late April of 1946.

A rather dumb cop, played by Nat Pendleton for comic effect, is providing security at the house. He's smitten with a mostly disinterested maid, played by Gladys Blake. Bela Lugosi, as Prof. Leonide, arrives at the house with a mute little person companion, Indigo, played by Angelo Rossitto. Lugosi gives every sign and appearance that he and Dr. Van Ee are enemies, or at least at odds over something or other. They verbally spar for a few minutes. It's fun to watch two old pros go at it in any film. But really nothing happens except it's agreed Lugosi's Leonide will lodge there awhile.

(Below is another ad for the film, from the July 11, 1947 San Bernardino, Calif. Sun. I like that it is accompanied by, presumably, a short called "Spooks to Me." I think the actual title is "Spook to Me," a Columbia Comedy short from 1945 starring Andy Clyde.)

Back to the plot of "Scared to Death:"  .... Someone appears to be gaslighting, Laura. She receives creepy mail packages, eerie messages, and a green floating head occasionally appears at windows. From time to time, Laura's corpse at the morgue breaks in for more narration. Eventually a fast-talking, aggressive-to-the-point-of-obnoxious newspaper reporter, played by Douglas Fowley, arrives with his ditzy girlfriend. He spends most of his time interrogating the various people in the house. His interview with Leonide is a highlight because Lugosi has good comic timing and is able to shift his pleasure to displeasure -- on discovering he's talking to a reporter -- in amusing fashion.

I enjoy this film now, mainly for Lugosi. He looks healthy, unique and just plain great in a very formal suit, cape and formal hat. He has the most acting energy of anyone in the cast. He speaks in the same style he used in the 1934 "Black Cat," placing emphasis and emotion on his lines at various appropriate times. His eyes are so expressive. Let's face it, Lugosi never gave anything other than his best in his films, even confusing films like "Scared to Death."

And it is very confusing to a first-time viewer. The film attempts to keep a scary atmosphere by using a few eerie-sounding musical chords of "DUN DA DUH!! a few times. With so many characters flitting around, plot twists -- some of which go nowhere, and such a low budget, the viewer can easily lose the plot thread for a while.

 I'm done summarizing the film. I will post a review/summary of "Scared to Death" that was published on June 8, 1947 by the Big Spring Daily Herald newspaper in Big Spring, Texas. The "review" is obviously part of the film's press packet that was probably just cut out by the editor of the newspaper section and placed on the page. Passing off studio-manufactured movie reviews as legit opinion in newspapers is not done today but I have seen a few 1940s' genre press kits in Cult Movies magazine and they include publicity movie "reviews" for willing press.

Here's a snippet if the review is too hard to read. It is "a picture designed especially to mystify and horrify even the most blase of audiences."

The Complete Films of Bela Lugosi, by Richard Bojarski, includes a review of Scared to Death from the New York Daily News. It reads in part, "Scared to Death is a horror film, just the sort of fare the Rialto Theater patrons go for. ... with sudden, unexplained disappearances, floating green masks that come and go at windows ..." The review adds that Lugosi and George Zucco "are old hands at this horror game."

I hope Lugosi got the biggest paycheck. Every ad I and my friend, David A Grudt (thanks for his help) found in archives always listed Bela in the type. Theater owners knew who exactly brought in the crowds.

With Lugosi and Zucco, a large house for a set, a woman in distress, and a decent supporting cast, I wish director Christy Cabanne had used his stars for a better plot. Maybe a Poverty Row version of a "Black Cat" type film with Zucco playing the Boris Karloff role. But that didn't happen.

As mentioned though, the film grows on you if you give it a few viewings. It may be the first film, until "Sunset Boulevard," narrated by a corpse. You can watch it below.

Ella Cinders is one marvelous silent film and Colleen Moore is great in it

Review by Doug Gibson

My initial reason for watching Ella Cinders, a 1926 comedy take on Cinderella from First National Pictures, was because I knew that my favorite silent comedy screen star, Harry Langdon, had a cameo with the actor who starred as Ella Cinders, Colleen Moore.

The cameo was great, very funny; but the movie is even better. It's a comedy classic and it's understandable that the winsome -- timid-but-determined heroine with the expressive countenance and bobbed hair -- Moore became a star.

Ella Cinders was a cartoon strip for decades in the prior century. It involved a beautiful step-child bullied and virtually enslaved by her widowed step-mother and her two far less attractive (and that's being kind) step-sisters. That's a familiar tale, of course. The setting is Colorado. Besides her screen-presence beauty, Moore is a genuine comedian who inspires pathos. I'm not scholar enough to analyze her talents next to other women silent stars, but with her pluckiness I do feel comfortable comparing her to Mabel Normand in two films, Mickey and The Extra Girl. (One of the Ella Cinder comic strips is below.)

So, Ella is pretty friendless except for one champion, the delightfully named Waite Lifter, the local iceman. (He's as handsome as a prince, by the way). One day, while cleaning up at a local get-together at her home she discovers news of a photo contest. The winner gets a screen contract in Hollywood. Ella sees it as an escape. To get the $3 needed to enter she babysits. She lifts a magazine from her sister on eye movement while acting. Watching her practice is very funny and special effects -- impressive for that time -- are used to have eyeballs move from side to side in the sockets.

(In the two stills below Moore's Ella is seen with her step-mother, Ma Cinders, played by Vera Lewis, and with her "prince," Waite Lifter, played by Lloyd Hughes).

Ella gets her photos taken and wins the trip. She won not for her beauty but because her eyes crossed while a fly was on her nose. The judges loved the comic effect. Her family shuns her but Waite sees her off on the train to Hollywood.

In the train, Moore shines in a scene where Ella takes a nap while alone on the train and wakes up with the car filled with Native American men in traditional garb. They are smoking cigars and Ella, wanting to be a good sport, tries puffing on one with comic results. Her acting in the scene is on par with Lucille Ball.

Once the train arrives in Hollywood Ella is hit with another major setback. The contest was a scam; the promoters are in jail. She's urged to go home but realizing how dire her prospects are there and the derision she'd receive, Ella musters the courage and determination to go it alone in the movie world and try to get a foot in the door.

This eventually leads to a funny sequence of scenes where she attempts to get past the guard at a studio's gates and is eventually chased through the lot by him. This includes the laugh-out-loud funny scene where Ella encounters Harry Langdon and mistakes him for another studio gate-crasher. Langdon, in complete "Little Elf" mode, listens quietly, using his facial expressions to provide encouragement. To avoid detection, he advises her to contort her body so he can place a tablecloth over her so she can hide as a table. It's clear that Harry was filming "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp" at the time based on the clothes he was wearing. (1)

Ella is eventually discovered and caught. But she so impresses the director, played by Ella Cinders director Alfred E. Green, that she gets a film contract and favorable press notices in her hometown announcing she's a star.

I'll stop with the plot recap here except to mention we learn that iceman Waite Lifter is actually a national sports hero with a wealthy family. In a short scene we see him arguing with his father, who doesn't want him to marry Ella.

The film I watched clocks at 51 minutes. However, I believe the film is 74 or 75 minutes. Perhaps part of the film is lost and this is a shorter re-release print. It's still very enjoyable and with overall good pacing. The climax of the film involving a reunion of Ella and Waite seems a bit too abrupt and perhaps that is where cuts were made. I also wonder if a final resolution scene with Ella and her wicked step-family might be missing.

Colleen Moore had a long fascinating life. She retired from acting after starring in The Scarlet Letter in 1934. She was a shrewd investor, so much so that she was partner later in life with Merrill Lynch. Besides writing an autobiography, she also wrote a book on how to invest in the stock market. Born in 1899, she died in 1988.

Moore preserved her films through the Museum of Modern Art but was persuaded by Warner Brothers to give the nitrate films to the studio for preservation. Once there the films were ignored and not maintained. When Moore inquired about the films years later, she was deeply disappointed to learn that many had deteriorated beyond repair. She searched to replace the now-lost films with a little success.

As for Ella Cinders, it can be viewed at Amazon Prime and at EPIX network. However, neither of those prints have music. I recommend watching the YouTube print embedded below. Despite one odd scene of Moore "talking," it's an OK print with music that provides a fun 51 minutes for viewers. We can only hope that TCM Sunday Silents will provide a strong print, with Ben Model-quality music, in the future. If the longer version exists, that would be a treat to view as well.

1) During Ella Cinders, on a few occasions Moore brings her fingers to her mouth to express confusion or discomfort. The gesture is so much like Langdon that I can't help but wonder if he suggested to Moore that she use the gesture.